(What We) Wanted
by thelinksthatconnectus
Summary: In which Archie and Maxie survive the near end of the world, are wanted for their crimes, and end up living together in a secret base. Archie still thinks things could have gone worse. Alpha Sapphire verse, Hardenshipping with possible other ships later
1. Chapter 1

The rain had finally stopped, replaced by what appeared to be pieces of glowing green light. Archie's eyes widened, and he reached out his hand towards it. With the calm sea and clear sky, the lights made the place seem like a scene from a fairy tale.

"Could it be?" Maxie asked. Archie turned towards him, locking eyes with the wide eyed red head. "Did she really manage to quell Kyogre's rage?"

It was as if Maxie was putting Archie's own thoughts to words.

Before Archie could reply, there was a loud cheer. "I knew she could do it! I just knew it!"

Both of the men turned. The boy, May's friend, was cheering. His white hat was lopsided, and in his childish glee, it fell to the ground, revealing his dark hair.

"She did it!"

Steven was grinning as well. He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, pausing him. "Yes, she really did, Brendan. Now, why don't we save some of that excitement for when she actually leaves the Cave of Origin?"

The boy, Brendan, nodded, and then reached down and picked up his hat.

Archie's racing heart had finally slowed down and his body relaxed. It was just so hard to be stressed now.

The kid's done it, he thought. A wide grin spread across his face. Only days ago, he would have thought it ridiculous to be glad that someone would foil his plans. Now, he couldn't keep the joy away.

She exited the cave only a few minutes later. When she did, tired eyed and still wearing the blue suit that was a few sizes too big for her, Archie was still grinning. Maxie even had a small smile on his lips.

"May, you did it!" Brendan was the first to meet her. She seemed a bit shocked by his sudden hug, but grinned none the same. She returned it.

Once it ended, Steven turned to her. In a way, it was a bit of a relief having her attention turned to them. That gave Archie some time to compose himself, to think up some way to respond to her.

To apologize.

"May," Steven said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You don't know just how important you are now. What you did, even I couldn't be sure that I could do."

Archie bit his lip. Steven was right. May, a mere child, had stepped in with great courage and saved the world. Had he been her age, he would have just been playing with his Carvahna and swimming past dark.

For a moment, his eyes turned to the two around him. Maxie's regular frown had returned, emphasizing the wrinkles on his face. His hands were locked together and his back board straight. Shelley looked a bit happier. Maybe it was because the world hadn't ended and she'd lived to see another day, maybe it was because her suit had worked (because as much as Archie liked it, he hardly knew the science behind it), or maybe it was a little bit of both.

It was only when May turned to them that she removed the helmet of her suit. Underneath, her face was sweat stained and bandana lopsided. Still, there was a wide smile on her face. Her eyes didn't look the least bit angry.

If I were in her place, Archie thought, I would be raging.

It was strange, now that he thought about it, trying to put himself in her shoes. May was a hero, a quiet kid with heroic goals and a good deal of courage. Archie was just a man with a failed dream and a criminal past. Maxie was too, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"You defeated Kyogre," Archie said. For a moment, the smile returned to his face.

May's face changed slightly. She wordlessly pulled off her suit and opened her green bag. Out of it, she pulled a single Ultra Ball and held it forward.

Archie's naturally dark skin paled considerably. His eyes widened. Archie and Shelley seemed just as surprised.

"You caught Kyogre?" Shelley was the one to ask. Her eyes were wide and she stepped closer. For a moment, she held her finger above the Ultra Ball, as if to touch it. However, her finger suddenly jerked away, as if she were afraid of what might happen if she touched it.

May nodded. Her own grin widened.

"You're one amazing kid, you know that?" Shelley stepped away, giving the kid some more room.

May would probably be getting a lot more compliments like those.

Archie's jaw nearly hit the bridge. Even he hadn't thought of capturing Kyogre. It had seemed too powerful, too free, to simply be held by a mere invention of humans. And to think, all that time he'd had a Master Ball of his own.

Archie sighed. No, it was far better this way. If he had owned Kyogre, there was no telling just what he would have done. If anyone could truly care for the legendary Pokemon and make sure that it wasn't used for evil again, then that person was May.

Maxie cleared his throat. Archie and Shelley regained their composures.

"I suppose," he said, pushing his glasses up further along his nose, "that some apologies are in order."

Archie bit his lip.

Just as he was about to try and begin his apology, however, Maxie continued on.

"We are adults and you are a mere child. You are the future of the world, as you have just shown us." Maxie paused.

Archie studied May's face for a moment. Her grin had vanished and her eyes had gone blank, her lips a firm and straight line.

"We should have shown you better. It should not be that children must clean up adults' messes." Maxie stepped away from her and looked to the water below him. "For that I, and surely we, are very sorry."

There was silence for a moment. Maxie's gaze returned on him, and the former sailor sighed. His joy from earlier was gone. Though the light still rained green sparks, the magic had left. There was nothing left to hide his failed dreams or the fact that he had helped to cause this mess.

"I'm so sorry, kid." Again, it was Shelley who spoke. "Even before I read those files at the meteorology place, I should have known that this would be a bad idea." For a moment, her voice cracked, and Archie almost thought that he saw tears in Shelley's eyes.

No, he thought. Shelley didn't cry.

Did she?

Before she could begin to sob, Archie spoke.

"As Maxie said," Archie continued, making a weak gesture towards the other man, "this is a mess that you shouldn't have had to clean up." His eyes no longer looked towards the water. All it would show was his own reflection. "And I'm sorry that you had to. This was my fault, and what I've done." He paused. "I don't think that I can ever make up. What I did was inexcusable." For a moment, he almost thought he felt tears at his eyes.

"Archie," Shelley said. She seemed to have calmed down, her eyes now dry and showing their usual spark. "It was my mistake too. And even after what you did, you're still my leader." A small smile crossed her face. "You're still my friend."

"This," Maxie added, "is not just your mess to clean up." His frown deepened. "Surely I would have done the same had I been able to get my hands on Groudon. We a all must make up for this."

Archie turned back to May. She looked slightly confused; though she had always helped to stop him, there were still many things that she didn't know about the two teams. "May," Archie said, "thank you." He pulled the blue orb from his pocket and handed it to her.

For a moment, she merely held it in her other hand. Her eyes were wide, and both hands were filled.

"If anyone can control Kyogre's primal reversion, then it's you." He shut his eyes. "Good luck, kid, though I don't really think that you'll need it."

The three turned wordlessly and walked away. May, Steven, and Brendan deserved their own moment.

* * *

"Well," Shelley said, once the three were on the other side of Sootopolis City, "what do we do now?"

"I need you to go back to Lillycove and close the base. There's nothing left there that I, or really anyone, needs." Archie frowned. "Team Aqua is over."

Shelley nodded. "Yes, sir."

He gave a faint smile. "You can just call me Archie now."

Shelley pulled a Pokeball from her bag and looked ready to fly away.

"Shelley!"

"Yes, si-" Shelley stopped mid sentence. "Yes, Archie?"

"Tell Matt that I'm sorry. You two be safe and don't get caught, okay?"

Shelley nodded. "Of course."

He pulled his blue walkie-talkie from his belt. "And hey, we'll always have this."

Shelley grinned, and pointed to her own on her belt. "Yeah, all of us will."

After that, she did fly away, leaving the two there. Archie was quiet for a moment, his eyes on Maxie. Why was he even still there?

"Well," Archie said, "I suppose that we should get going before the police come to get us. For all we know, a warrant is already on our heads."

"It probably is." Maxie sighed.

"Look, if you need help, getting away, I'll help you."

For a moment, Maxie didn't reply, just gave him a wide eyed stare. "But why?"

"You're in trouble and you need help. I may have nearly destroyed the world, but I'm not so bad as to not help someone in need." He grinned. "Besides, you said it yourself, this isn't just my mess to clean up."


	2. Chapter 2

Archie's room was almost completely empty, save for Shelley and himself. Shelley was unusually silent. Usually, his friend had some news to tell him or a joke. Instead, Shelley merely continued to pick up things and place them in a large plastic bag.

Archie's things.

"Shelley," Matt continued, his voice shaking just the slightest. "Shelley, you can't do this."

"I can." Her voice was as sharp as a knife, and Matt could only imagine the glare she was giving him. Thankfully, her bangs were blocking his view of her eyes. "He told me to."

"But it's his things!"

"Archie told me to get rid of them for him." Shelley sighed. "I told you, Matt, it's over."

"It can't be!" Team Aqua couldn't just be over. Its ideals lived on. Archie had admitted that to Matt when he had first joined. He had admitted, with a grave tone and heavy eyes, that even if he did not live to see the world changed as he desired, he would at least try to keep the team alive past his death.

"It is." Shelley used the same monotone, formal tone of voice that she used whenever she was talking to the other Team Aqua scientists. The tone of voice that could only speak facts.

But it couldn't be true, could it? His bro couldn't just abandon Matt and the rest of the team.

"You weren't there to see Kyogre, Matt." Shelley turned still, and her voice dropped. "You weren't there to see that storm. Archie and I were so afraid of what would happen. I tried to stop him, back at-"

"You tried to stop him?" Matt was sure that the entire Aqua hideout had heard his cry. His words echoed off the walls of Archie's room.

He had been there with her when they had both vowed to serve Archie and Team Aqua forever. Back then, Shelley's voice had been sure and her declaration of loyalty proud. What could possibly have shaken her to the core so badly that she would betray the team and Archie? Had she been speaking the truth all those years ago, when Team Aqua had first been founded? Or had she lied of her loyalty back then as well?

"Did you even listen to what I just said?" Shelley's voice was just as sharp.

For a moment, Matt froze. Her bangs were out of her face, and he could see the anger in her eyes. Mixed in it, though, was sadness. He was used to seeing Shelley angry. Not with him, but with the grunts; before then, he had never heard her yell at him before, but at least he knew that she could do it.

This? This couldn't be Shelley.

"Shelley, bro," he said. He bit his lip.

"It was so terrifying, Matt." Shelley dropped the bag of items on the ground. When a few of them spilled onto the floor, she didn't so much as move to pick them up. "Kyogre was a monster; there's just no other way to describe it, at least when it was put through primal reversion. Archie and I were terrified. I really thought that the world was going to end, and the worst part was that I had helped to cause it."

"But," Matt began. "But, but..."

Shelley looked for a moment as if she were going to say something, but then merely looked down to the floor.

"But I thought Kyogre was going to change things."

"It did, Matt," Shelley replied. "It changed things for the worst."

If someone were to have suddenly come up and stabbed him in the back, Matt was sure that he wouldn't even register the pain. Not now, not when Shelley's words ripped through his skin and ran through his blood.

"He tried to contact you during the storm." Shelley stepped back. Her arms were wrapped around her muscular waist, as if she were trying to hug herself. "Archie needed to tell you what was going on. His communicator, however, couldn't reach through due to the storm. Maxie's wasn't working either." She paused for a moment. "For a while, I think that he was trying to contact you to let you know that he couldn't be sure if we were going to make it."

"No." He stepped away from her, and stepped to the far edge of the room. "No, no, no, no!" He had never been claustrophobic before, but suddenly the room seemed so small. Though Shelley, the sad, unreal Shelley, was standing nearly at the opposite end of the room, she still seemed too close. It was still so easy, even from the distance, to see the sad look in her eyes and to hear the shake in her voice.

"Yes. Everything I just described happened, and we helped to make it."

"What about Archie? What about our bro?"

"I told you earlier." Shelley sighed. "In a way, I can hardly believe it myself. He went off with Maxie to go into hiding, and he said that we should too. He told me to get things packed up and that Team Aqua was over."

"Archie would never-"

"Kyogre changed things."

For a moment, the only thing that Matt could hear was the racing of his own heart. Shelley remained still. She had finally gone silent again.

For a moment, Matt could only stare at her a bit longer. This couldn't be her. Shelley didn't act like this, and Archie didn't act the way that she described either.

He stepped forward, heading to confront her. Her entire body was shaking, and her eyes made him fill to the core with dread.

This was Shelley, his friend. He had known her for years.

Why then did she seem like a whole new person?

As he stepped forward, his arm out and ready to hold her steady (because maybe, just maybe if she relaxed then she could get back to normal, back to her old self), a person appeared between them.

"Huh?"

The person, a female grunt, stood on the green warp panel. Her eyes were slightly wide.

"You aren't supposed to be in here!" Matt's voice held its usual sharpness whenever he spoke to grunts who stepped out of line. For a moment, his voice was hard and reassured again.

"I know," she said. She held her hands together. "I just came to tell you that you have guests here, desperate to see you."

"Guests?" Shelley sounded normal again. A shocked Shelley he could understand. "Who, the police?"

"No." The girl bit her lip. "They said that their names were Courtney and Tabitha."

"Courtney and who?" Matt asked. Were these just some other grunts?

"Team Magma," the girl replied. "They really need to see you up front. They said it was important." Before she could explain further, the girl quickly stepped again on the warp pad and vanished.

Shelley raced forward, eyes locked on the warp pad. She was the first to step on it and vanish.

Matt hurried after her, with just as much energy. For a moment, he couldn't help but smile, remembering the all too familiar glint that had again appeared in his friend's eyes.

* * *

It wasn't until after he and Maxie had taken off that Archie had decided to tell her just who he was partnering with. Even after everything that had happened, he doubted that if Shelley had seen it with her own eyes she would have believed it. A message over their communication devices would have to be enough.

Now, he had other things to worry about. He was sure that she did too, closing the base and all. Still, she deserved to know what would happen.

Maybe he would call up Matt later and tell him as well. He couldn't now, not while his Sharpedo was racing across the water even faster than ever.

"You are riding your Pokemon like he's a jet ski!" Maxie said, tightening his grip on Archie's waist.

"My Sharpedo is a girl!"

"Well then don't treat her like a jet ski or boat!"

"I'm not." He patted her fin. "She's actually used to this kind of thing." Right after he had first caught her, he had immediately started swimming alongside and carefully surfing on her, which she had done well.

"Well I most certainly am not!" Maxie sounded a mix of both angered and afraid. Without a second thought, Archie pulled one of his hands away from his Sharpedo's fins and put it around one of Maxie's arms around his waist. "What are you doing?"

"Holding onto you," Archie replied. "If you fell off, I'd swim in after you, but I don't feel like seeing anyone nearly drown tonight."

The moonlight reflected off of the water. It had started to grow weaker. It was more day than night now, and every that second that passed grew closer and closer to morning. How many hours they had been on his Sharpedo's back, he couldn't be sure. Though she was a strong Pokemon, he doubted that she or the two men could stay awake much longer.

The rush of fear from earlier had faded enough to where Archie could feel how heavy his eyelids were. His energy from earlier faded the longer that he stayed awake. Wanted criminal or not, he needed sleep.

"We just need to keep heading forward for a bit," Archie said. He tightened his grip on Maxie's arm and gave his Sharpedo another reassuring pat. "Once we find somewhere to lie in, we can get to sleep."

"Sleep?" Maxie yelled. "That's the last thing that we need right now!"

"I've heard you yawning the entire night!" Archie replied. "You sounded as if you were ready to knock out at any moment."

"Who could sleep while you're busy riding your Sharpedo like this? I'd close my eyes and wake up dead!"

"Sleep," Archie said, "is important. Believe it or not, but we actually do need it."

"Archie, we don't have time to sleep! Not when we're probably being hunted down already."

"If someone's after us, then they haven't found us yet." Archie sighed. "I do have some good news though."

"What?"

"If we find somewhere to sleep now, then we can escape getting spotted by swimmers come the day." During that time, the water was infested. Now, it was peaceful and still save for Archie, Maxie, and his Sharpedo.

"Such wonderful news," Maxie replied with a huff.

"You're the one who insists that we never get caught."

For a moment, that turned Maxie silent. "I highly doubt that you would want to go to prison either."

They were silent for the rest of the ride. Archie almost replied to him, but he wasn't feeling like a full fledged flight, not yet.

After a while, he felt something against his back. Looking back, he saw Maxie's head against his back and the top of his shoulders. After a few moments, he began to snore.

He was still asleep when Archie and his Sharpedo spotted land. Carefully, he got onto the shore and held Maxie carefully. Considering how he had acted earlier, there was no way that Archie could wake him up, not without seeing Maxie get frantic again and never attempt to sleep again.

Wanted criminal or not, Archie reminded himself as he returned his Sharpedo to her Pokeball, Maxie needed his sleep.

Archie yawned, and with his free hand rubbed at his eyes.

He did too.

* * *

Courtney had always expected the Team Aqua place to be loud and messy, just like the rest of the team was. Judging by the disgusted look on Tabitha's face as well, he hadn't had high hopes either, though he did seem just a bit surprised.

These days, nothing seemed to surprise Courtney. Not even after everything failed. After all, life was like a science experiment, either it followed the expected hypothesis or did not.

Still, the place could have looked a little better. A plastic bag overflowing with items, what Courtney guessed to be either one of the two Aqua admin's or their leader's junk, lay on the floor, and the room that they were in looked as if it had been forgotten. The pictures on the wall were crooked and a model ship had been knocked over. The small bed in one corner was a mess, as if someone had gotten up one morning and never bothered to straighten the covers and sheets up.

"So Maxie sent you here?" Shelley repeated.

"We've already told you that three times!" Tabitha threw his hands in the air.

Shelley sighed, and the large, muscular man beside her still seemed just as shocked to see the two Aqua admins as he had before.

Beneath her uniform, Courtney was sweating slightly. This hideout was hot, and the thick smell of sea water and salt wasn't doing much better for her.

"Maxie told us that you two would know what to do." Courtney replied.

Tabitha snorted. "For once, I think that Maxie misjudged this."

"They certainly have more answers than you do." Courtney locked eyes with Shelley. Considering she wasn't doubting Maxie and her eyes weren't as wide as saucers, she seemed like the only other person in the room who still had some sense in them. "My teammate and I only heard about what happened."

"It was terrible, we-"

Before Shelley could say anything else, the muscular man wrapped his arms around Shelley's waist and squeezed her in a tight hug. Shelley's eyes looked as if they were about to ball out of her head.

"It's okay, bro! Don't start getting all sad again!"

"Thank you, Matt," Shelley said. Her feet were off the ground, and Matt looked to be hugging her even tighter. "I'm fine now. Thank you for your concern." Her last words came out quickly, and once the burly man let her go she took a few deep breaths. "He told me to close down the base. Team Aqua is over."

"Oh." Tabitha blinked a few times.

"Maxie hasn't told us anything yet beyond the fact that we needed to see you." Courtney pulled her communicator from her belt. "I've tried contacting him a few times, but he's never answered."

"We hoped that you would have some instructions for us." Tabitha crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. "As usual, my hope was foolish and baseless."

"Don't look so sad, little Makuhita man," Matt said. He stepped forward, his arms out.

Tabitha turned as red as the turtleneck of his uniform. "I told you before not to call me that!"

Shelley raised an eyebrow and Courtney merely sighed. She stepped forward and picked up the bag off of the floor.

"I assume that you were packing things up, yes?"

Shelley nodded. "I figured we should clear the stuff out before we completely abandon the place. Water Pokemon might come inside later, and they won't want the place polluted."

Courtney wordlessly began to pick items up on the floor, and Shelley soon followed after her. Once the floor was cleaned, more items were added until the bag was bulging.

* * *

They had been working for hours, going into rooms and filling bags as they could. Grunts were instructed to move items as well, and Shelley had no time for their objections.

By now, they were close to getting things done. A red faced Tabitha and a grinning Matt had been working together as well; the Team Magma admin had tried to object at first, but it was obvious that he would have gotten lost were it not for Matt's guidance.

"Courtney," Shelley said, breaking the silence that had been between them for hours, ever since Matt and Tabitha had gone off to work together.

The purple haired girl met her eyes and merely raised an eyebrow.

"I can't be one hundred percent sure if I should close this base."

"Your leader told you to, didn't he?" Her voice was monotone and her face as blank and unreadable as ever.

"Yes, but I'm thinking about the grunts." Shelley bit her lip. As annoying as some of them were, many didn't have much to go back to. "A few of them don't have anywhere else to go after this. No homes, no family. If they lose this base then they have nothing."

For a moment, Courtney's mouth turned into a slight frown. "It's the same for some Team Magma grunts." She turned silent once more.

Shelley began to pack things up once more. How could she expect Courtney to have all the answers? She hardly knew more than Shelley did. Her own team didn't matter now, not with their leader gone and their ideals surely crushed as well.

"Give them a warning."

"Huh?" Shelley looked back up to her.

"Warn all of the grunts that since the team is disbanded, the base will soon be closing. I doubt that it won't be long until the police come around as well. Tell them that it's closed and the police might be coming soon, and that they should only stay if they have to. Even tell them to find hiding spots as well if they really can't leave."

For a moment, Shelley thought over it. It was as good of an idea as any, and for now it was all that could be done.

"Thank you," she said.

Courtney merely nodded and began to pick up items once more.


	3. Chapter 3

If Tabitha could describe his whole life at the current moment in one word, it would have to be "tornado". Though, judging by what had apparently happened when Archie awakened Kyogre, "hurricane" might have been a better word.

Unlike the other aqua admin, Matt was easier to ask questions from. It was obvious he didn't know much, at least not when compared to those who had actually witnessed the event, but at least Tabitha was learning something. It wasn't as if Shelley was about to start telling everyone what she saw.

And maybe, Tabitha thought, a lump forming in his throat, it's better that way.

Maxie was one of the best men that he had ever known. Despite everything that had happened, Tabitha knew that he would never regret working for Maxie. Joining Team Magma had changed his life for the better.

That didn't make Maxie a saint.

Tabitha knew his boss well. It had to be expected, considering his job. What Maxie wanted, Maxie tended to get.

And Maxie wanted more land.

There was no way to deny it. Maxie had said it himself, and gone so far as to build an entire team around it.

The lump in Tabitha's throat tightened. He could see it already - Groudon, the mighty Pokemon, no deity, with its head raised towards the sky. With its immense size, it doesn't even need powers to cause earthquakes, not when its very steps make the earth tremble. It would let out a roar towards the sky, as if proclaiming itself towards the heavens.

Then, the earth would change, split apart and then glue itself back together again in the worst possible way.

And Maxie would have been the very man to cause it.

"Tabitha?"

Tabitha was torn from his thoughts, and quickly looked up to Matt. For a moment, his eyes could only search the room, looking for anyone else. But there was no one there, and Tabitha recognized the other voice.

Were it not for his earlier thoughts, he might have been surprised by Matt actually calling him by his name. That had to be a first.

But it was just so hard to focus on. Even Matt's cheerful tone and loud workout mix couldn't shake away the vision of Groudon from Tabitha's mind.

* * *

Another item was bagged. Shelley's arms moved mechanically, picking up most of her items without even looking at them. It wasn't as if they actually mattered, at least not now.

Now, everything was different.

I can't believe I built my whole life around this team, Shelley thought. Everything I stood for, everything I hoped for, and in the end it was all for nothing.

Even before Team Aqua had been formed, it had been her very life. Archie had been her closest friend, always there for her when she needed him with an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on. Had it not been for him, she couldn't even begin to imagine how much worse life might have been for her.

They'd been friends for as long as she could remember. It was hard to believe that there had been a time in their lives when they hadn't known each other. Somehow, he always snuck into her memories of the past. From playing with him as a kid, to graduating high school on the same year, to sending each other letters every day while they were in colleges on the opposite sides of Hoenn to keep in touch, he had always been part of her life.

So when Archie had said he needed help with Team Aqua, she had followed him without question. Archie wasn't just a man with ideals, or the man handing out someone's next paycheck, but her best friend.

She couldn't have denied him help, not when he needed her to help make his team what it had become.

But if I had known what I do now, Shelley thought, would I have truly done it?

Shelley never got a reply. It was as if her own brain had grown tired of her musings. Instead, her arms just moved faster and faster, moving item after item into a bag.

"Are you sure you just want to get rid of all this stuff?" Courtney asked, breaking their long silence.

"If you want something, take it," Shelley replied, keeping her eyes locked on the items before her. "I don't mind. It's not like I have any use for it now."

* * *

Normally, Tabitha would have objected to this, perhaps even going so far as to yell at Matt. But he couldn't think of even a single protest. Instead, he lay limp in the man's strong arms, silently trying to fight back the tears that were forming in his eyes.

The image of Groudon just wouldn't go away, at least not forever. Sometimes, a few blessed seconds would pass when the image would leave his mind, and then quickly return again later.

This must be exactly how Shelley feels, Tabitha realized. No wonder she broke down earlier.

Matt had gone from just hugging him to running one of his hands down Tabitha's back. Despite how he looked, his hands were surprisingly soft and hug welcome.

"What's wrong, my little Makuhita man?" Matt's voice was low, just barely above a whisper.

Tabitha sniffled. "Everything."

Losing the strength to hold the dam he had long ago built around his eyes, Tabitha allowed himself to cry for the first time in ages.

* * *

Maxie awoke to the feeling of the warm sun against his skin and the sound of soft snores. For a moment, he smiled, his eyes only half open and barely processing what was in front of him. Though the sun was bright, he felt like going back to sleep.

Sleep, he thought. That sounds so nice.

As his eyes were about to close, though, his hands felt something.

Something very, very hard.

Tearing his eyes open and sitting up, Maxie saw that he was not in his bedroom. In fact, he had no idea where he was. All he knew was that he was sleeping on a beach, his hand had touched a seashell, and Archie was laying very close to him.

Judging by his snoring and the fact that his bandana was wrapped around his eyes like a sleep mask, he was still far away in dream land.

Maxie stood up and looked around. Far too close to him for comfort was the roaring sea. His shoes were slightly wet, but he dared not take them off for fear of what he might accidentally step on. The last thing that he needed was to get his feet cut up and infected.

His clothing and hair was covered in sand, and his hand knit turtleneck for once felt far from comfortable.

After quickly taking it off, Maxie sat back down and placed a hand on his temple.

Something had to have led to this moment, Maxie thought. Everything has a reason.

It took him a moment to remember, but once he did everything came to him in a rush. There was Kyogre, and there was a worried Shelley and Archie, then the kid came. Then a ten year old single-handedly manage to save the world and catch one of the most powerful Pokemon in the world. Afterwards, Archie had disbanded Team Aqua and agreed to help Maxie escape the law.

I still don't know how we got here, Maxie thought, looking around.

The island, or whatever it was, was completely new to him. There was just nothing like it.

For a moment, Maxie looked from the island to the sleeping Archie. Would it be rude to wake him up?

Oh, who cares? Maxie realized. Archie has bigger problems right now than getting his beauty sleep.

"Archie!" Maxie said, his voice loud and yet just barely below the point where he was yelling. "You need to wake up and tell me what is going on this instant!"

Archie awoke quickly. Within moments he was standing and looking around, eyes wide and body tense.

"Maxie," he said after a moment. His eyes slowly lost their sharp edge. "Maxie, it's just you. Maxie." He blinked a few times.

"Archie, what is going on? Where are we?"

Archie looked around them for a moment before a familiar smile crossed his face. "Don't you remember? I said we needed to stop somewhere, so we did."

"I don't remember approving this place."

Archie laughed. "Of course you don't, Maxie. You were all but using me as your bed."

Maxie felt his cheeks go red. "Oh." He looked around. "Well, I suppose that this is a good enough place to stop for now. We should be gone anyway, within two hours at most."

"Two hours?" Archie raised an eyebrow. "Don't you remember what I said last night?"

Maxie shook his head.

"Look up at the sky," Archie said, pointing upwards. "By now the sea is infested with swimmers. Unless you want to get spotted by a high schooler practicing for swim team tryouts, then we better stay here until nightfall."

"Nightfall?"

Archie rolled his eyes. "You make it sound like the world ended. Really, it's just a few hours at most. We can rest before getting on my Sharpedo again." He smirked. "Knowing how you reacted last night, I think that you need the time to prepare yourself."

Maxie was about to object, but Archie turned away and walked towards the water. As he did so, he began to remove his clothing.

"What are you doing?" Maxie yelled as Archie's clothes slowly lowered. Already, he could see his muscular back, which was covered in thick, curly black hair.

"What does it look like?" Archie replied. "I'm taking a bath."

Before Maxie could object, Archie's clothing was off and he was jumping into the sea.


	4. Chapter 4

"Are you sure you don't need anything?" Courtney asked.

Shelley turned towards her. It hardly seemed like much time had passed, and yet the room was almost clean. Other than bags filled with items, the room was almost completely empty.

Shelley shook her head. "I told you, nothing here matters any more."

"Are you sure?" Courtney repeated.

Shelley sighed. "Look, Courtney-"

"I just think that you need to see this!"

Shelley turned. "What's so important?"

Courtney leaned a hand forward. It was only when she pulled her hand off the item that Shelley could see just what she had been holding.

"How could I have forgotten about this?" Shelley turned the picture over in her hands. The children inside looked so happy, as if they had just gone on the greatest adventure of their life or discovered a great treasure.

"Is that the legendary Pokemon Jirachi?" Courtney's eyes were wide.

Shelley nodded. "Yes, it certainly is."

"If you could have anything, what would it be?" Jirachi had asked. "What would you wish for?"

"I thought that it was just a myth," Courtney said, "just a Pokemon that existed in childrens stories."

The same could have been said about Kyogre, Shelley thought.

"That's you and Archie, isn't it?" Her tone, usually monotone and bare, rose the longer that she spoke. She had leaned even closer to Shelley, her fingers hovering inches over the picture frame.

Shelley handed it over to her. "Here, you can look again."

Courtney took it from her in an instant and then held the picture close to her eyes.

"And yes," Shelley continued, "that was me and Archie. We were about eight or nine when that picture was taken. I can't remember the exact time it happened, but I can remember all the rest."

She really could. The air had smelled sweet, mixed with the scent of both flowers and sand. All around her had been new Pokemon that she had never seen before, Pokemon that she could only have imagined about back in Pacifidog Town. Like always, Archie was there with her, grinning and wide eyed.

"That must have been amazing." Courtney handed the photo frame back slowly, her eyes never leaving it until it was safely in the other woman's hands. "I heard that the Pokemon only awakens after a thousand years of sleep. Is that true?"

"I've heard that too," Shelley replied. She shrugged. "We were just kids amazed by Pokemon. Back then we didn't care about facts like that." Shelley looked down to her feet. "I do remember that on another trip to Lillycove a few years later we went looking for Jirachi again, taking Matt with us this time. We never did find Jirachi."

"I'm sorry."

Shelley turned away from her. "You don't have any control over it. Looking back, it was probably just pure luck and coincidence that we even got to meet Jirachi. For all I know, it really had just woken up from its thousand year sleep."

"So, what did you wish for?"

"Huh?" Shelley raised an eyebrow. Her grip tightened on the photo frame.

"Oh, don't tell me that you didn't wish for something. That's what the Pokemon does after all."

Shelley closed her eyes. She could still the Pokemon, looking at both her and Archie. Back then, before the two had hit their growth spurts, the Pokemon had seemed humungous. Now, she doubted it would be quite the same.

"You do have a wish, don't you?" Jirachi had asked. Its voice had been sweet, having an almost whismical and musical tone to it.

Archie had certainly had a wish, a pure one that he had made with all his heart.

"I did make a wish," Shelley admitted. "Archie did too. They both came true."

"What were they?"

Shelley opened her eyes, forcing the image of the legendary Pokemon away. "Isn't it taboo to reveal what you wished for? Won't that make it not come true?"

"You said before that your wishes already came true."

"I don't want that to change."

* * *

Shelley had been digging through the bags for a little while. She hadn't pulled much out, and all of the items that she had were small (mostly photos, though there were a few other knicknacks that she pulled out and looked at fondly).

"Should we get going soon?" Shelley asked.

"Oh no," Courtney replied. She straightened her back and quickly looked away. It was hard to believe that she had been staring at the other woman for so long. "Take your time. You said that after this we were leaving, and I wouldn't want anything important getting left behind."

"Alright," Shelley replied.

A few moments later, a wide smile spread across her face as she found another trinket.

It's hard to believe that she almost gave those up, Courtney thought.

"Do you need me to get you a bag for those?"

Shelley looked up to her. "Oh, yes. Just a small one though. I think I'm close to getting everything that truly matters."

* * *

Things would have been a lot easier if Archie would just see reason, Maxie realized. Whether he needed a bath or not, the ocean was hardly the place to take it. Who knew just what was in those waters? He'd probably just end up stinking of fish.

But then again, when did Archie ever listen to reason? He had decided to not only wake one of the ancient creators of Hoenn, but he had also forced it to revert to its original, nearly uncontrollable state. Before that had happened, he'd had time to reform himself and his team, to make things right before putting thousands, no millions, of people in danger. Not only had Maxie tried to stop him, but Shelley had as well.

And yet, Maxie thought, here you are, still with him.

It was hard to abandon him. Archie may have technically been in more trouble than he was, but Maxie was hardly a saint. Team Magma hardly had a clean record.

Maxie sighed. Archie wasn't the only one to make mistakes.

I can only hope that Tabitha and Courtney are doing well, he thought.

And even if they weren't, it was hard to figure out what to do then. Maxie was probably miles away from them. They surely had gone to the Team Aqua hideout and then just as quickly gotten out.

As if they'd ever stay there, Maxie thought.

They might not have even gone. He had lost contact with them since he had told them to head to the Aqua base, and even if he did call them they could always tell a lie.

What would Courtney and Tabitha want there, anyway?

Maxie was torn from his thoughts by Archie rising from the water. The sun reflected off of his deep brown skin, and for a moment he seemed to glow with a deep light. Then, he moved, the sun moving away from him, and Maxie had to close his eyes.

"Haven't you ever heard of a towel?"

Maxie had enough problems at the moment to deal with. The last thing he needed was to add "Archie is showing off his naked butt to the entire island" to his list of concerns.

They may have been on an island away from most people, but that didn't mean that modesty could be ignored.

"This is a deserted island, Maxie," Archie replied. "They don't have towels here!"

Maxie turned away, his eyes still closed tight. "Stop showing yourself off to the entire island!"

"You're the only other person here!"

Maxie's cheeks flushed red. He could only hope that Archie would take a hint and put his clothes from the previous night back on.

"That doesn't matter!" Maxie replied, voice loud and firm.

Of all the (countless) fights that he'd had with Archie over the years, this was the one fight he had never expected having.

* * *

"And you know exactly where you're going?" Tabitha asked.

"Yes," Courtney said, voice firm. Her eyes were sharp, and she looked as if she were going to race out of the Team Aqua base at any moment. "Shelley and I already discussed our plan."

"We know what we're doing." Shelley shifted the bag that she was carrying.

"Do you have everything that you need? Are you one hundred percent sure that everything is fine?"

Courtney sighed. "Tabitha, we'll be fine."

"I'm just making sure." Tabitha looked to the ground.

"He's just worried about you bros," Matt added. For once, Tabitha was glad that he had chimed in.

"And do you two know what you're doing?" Shelley asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't noticed? Everyone is breaking apart from each other but still staying in a group. Maxie went with Archie, I'm going with Courtney, and Matt has been all but glued to your hip ever since you showed up." Courtney looked up towards Matt and winked.

Tabitha crinkled his nose. "I never said that I was teaming up with him."

"Well you never said that you weren't, either." Shelley snickered. "You got yourself a good one, Matt."

The two both started laughing, a sound that filled the room. Tabitha looked over to Courtney, who simply shrugged.

"Just make sure to keep in contact with us through your communicators, okay?" Shelley said, her tone suddenly dead serious. "If any of you guys need help, don't be afraid to ask."

"Of course," Matt suddenly said, his tone just as serious. He placed a hand on Tabitha's shoulder. "We'll be sure to."

"And one more thing," Courtney said.

All three turned towards her. "Whatever you do with this base, be careful. There's still a chance that evidence could be left behind of what happened. We all agreed that it would open a bit longer for the people who need it, but even they will need help getting out. Once law authorities come around, they'll look for anything that can get both of us in trouble."

From the corner of his eye, Tabitha watched Matt nod.

"Good," Courtney said.

Right before the two left, Shelley ran up and pulled Matt into a fierce hug. He quickly returned it, pulling himself away from Tabitha.

"Be careful, okay, buddy?"

"You better be careful too, bro!"

Courtney locked eyes with Tabitha. There was no similar form of affection. The two were certainly more than mere acquaintances, but they were hardly the friends that the two Aqua admins were.

"Just don't do anything that you might regret." Courtney said. Her voice lowered. "We've already done enough of that."

Tabitha nodded. "Stay safe."

"You as well."

Once the hug ended, Shelley grabbed her bag and the two turned away. Courtney gave him a small wave and an even smaller smile, one that he just barely saw. It was so strange, seeing it instead of her usual frown.

It was the first time in a long time when Tabitha didn't know when he would see his purple haired co-admin again.

* * *

Shelley and Courtney may have been dressed like normal citizens, but she hardly felt like one.

"Are you sure that no one's staring at us?" she asked.

"Positive," Courtney replied.

Shelley glanced around. "Are you sure?"

"Keep acting like this and they will."

Shelley turned silent. She certainly had a point.

Just act normal, she thought. Soon enough we'll get to Courtney's parents' house and things will be alright.

Courtney moved closer and spoke to her, her voice just barely above a whisper. "I hope that you're ready for a walk."

"Your Pokemon can't just fly us there?" Already, the two had traveled by sky. Judging by how much easier it was to stay anonymous in the mostly empty sky compared to the crowded land, it seemed like a much better idea to just stay in the air.

"They flew us as far as we could." Courtney sighed. "My parents... Let's just say that they like being away from cities. They've always been that way, and they always will. Still, there's no better place I'd rather be hiding. They aren't even in any address books."

Shelley nodded.

"You just need to trust me on this one, Shelley."


End file.
